John Strong Newberry

(1822-1892) John Newberry was a botanist, geologist and medical doctor who joined early expeditions to California and Oregon in 1855. He described many species from the Bay Area to the Sacramento Valley and north along the Williamson Pacific Railroad, to whom he was employed to do botanical surveys. Newberry was impressed with the volume and variety of plants in California so much that he deemed it almost immeasurable. His botanical findings of the expedition emphasized the differences between western and eastern vegetation, noting a greater variety of annual plants, and numerous new species out west.

He continued to do further explorations with the Colorado Exploring Expedition which ventured through the great canyons of the West and the San Juan Exploring Expedition in the Santa Fe, NM area. He joined the Civil War effort as physician and was given a position with the Smithsonian Institution afterward, which was short-lived. He was chosen to be Chair of Geology and Paleontology at Columbia University where he remained for the rest of his life.